In the News

June 23, 2010 | SLICES WITH JACK: Jack Abramoff, the super-lobbyist who in 2006 pled guilty to multiple felony charges related to a corruption scandal and defrauding his clients, was transferred from federal prison to a halfway house in Maryland earlier this month. Now, it seems, his calling is taking him to a pizza parlor.

October 26, 2009 | On Thursday, the House Financial Services Committee approved H.R. 3126, which would create a new executive branch agency to oversee consumer financial protections, on a 39-29 vote. CRP has found that $527,500 is the average amount a committee member who voted "no" received from financial groups' PACs and employees between January 2007 and June. The average amount a member who voted "yes" received was $438,900.

October 16, 2009 | An initial Center for Responsive Politics analysis has found that sitting members of the U.S. House of Representatives raised $48.2 million from July 1 through Sept. 30, 2009, based on the 336 reports we have in. The mean amount these lawmakers raised was $143,640, and the median amount was $126,680.

September 15, 2009 | All but seven Republicans stood by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and voted against a Congressional resolution to disapprove of his "you lie" outburst last week. Several of them, including much of the House Republican leadership, have also backed Wilson with financial support in recent years.

June 25, 2009 | Here's a cool tool that brings together data from various parts of OpenSecrets.org to show how much money each current lawmaker has raised from various health-related industries and the health sector overall since 1989 (including President Obama's haul).

February 10, 2009 | The eight CEOs testifying Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee about how their companies are using billions of dollars in bailout funds may find that the hot seat is merely lukewarm. Nearly every member of the committee received contributions associated with these financial institutions during the 2008 election cycle, for a total of $1.8 million.

September 23, 2008 | The last time Congress seriously debated how to regulate the financial industry, the result was legislation that allowed the nation's largest banks to get even larger and take risks that had been prohibited since the Great Depression. A look back at that debate, which was over the 1999 Financial Services Modernization Act, reveals that campaign contributions may have influenced the votes of politicians who, a decade later, are now grappling with the implosion of the giant banks they helped to foster.

September 11, 2008 | When the federal government announced two months ago that it would be seizing mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, CRP looked at how much money members of Congress had collected since 1989 from the companies. On Sunday the government proceeded with the takeover and we've returned to our data to bring you the updates, this time providing a list of all 354 lawmakers who have gotten money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (in July we posted the top 25).

May 29, 2007 | Politicians set up so-called leadership PACs to raise even more money. But they don’t want you to know what they’re doing. __________________ Currently, a leadership political action committee, or leadership PAC, is not required to disclose the lawmaker with whom it is affiliated. North Carolina Rep. Walter B. Jones is hoping to shine more light…

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